If you are in Japan, unless you wanna go skiing or snowboarding, the best place to take vacation in the winter is Okinawa. Okinawa is Japan’s southern most prefecture and is made up of hundreds of islands. When I went, I pretty much stay around Naha, the capital, which is on Okinawa Island. I lived in Miami for four years, so I am no stranger to beautiful beaches and the ocean, but as far as I am concerned, Okinawa is on a totally different sea level (sorry, bad pun). Part of what makes Okinawa so spectacular is that pretty much wherever you are (on the main island at least) as soon as you go up on one of the many hills, you can see the ocean. Pretty much any time you are driving, you will get great views of the sea.

Of course Okinawa also has great snorkeling, scuba diving and seafood. Not to mention it has been heavily influenced by a few different cultures to make for an interesting and diverse atmosphere. Oh and they have this dish called taco rice, which after eating everything imaginable from the ocean during my stay in Japan, was more delicious than it probably really should have been. Even though I probably saw a few too many castles and didn’t go to the beach as much as I would have wanted to, I was really glad that Okinawa was the last place I visited before leaving Japan.See more photos and read the rest of this entry »

The Fuji Five Lakes are located at the base of Mount Fuji and weather permitting, offer fabulous views of Mount Fuji. When I went it was really cloudy and I could not see Mount Fuji from the lakes, the area is still nice enough to find other things to take photos of. The photo below is taken from Itchiku Kubota’s Kimono Museum which is close to Kawaguchiko (the biggest of the lakes). Besides having beautiful kimonos the landscape and design of the museum is just amazingly beautiful, especially in the fall.

If you want to climb Mount Fuji, it is not a bad idea to stay here the day before as Fuji Five Lakes (Fujigoko) is a good place to start the climb. Also camping, hiking and fishing are other popular outdoor activities here. If you can, fall or cherry blossom season is the best time to visit the five lakes, but if you want to climb Mount fuji, the climbing season is from June-August.